Elon Musk, who heads the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant quarreled at the White House last week in front of President Donald Trump, the Axios portal reported, citing its sources in the administration.
“These were two middle-aged billionaires who imagined they were having a wrestling match in the West Wing lobby“, the portal quoted one of the witnesses to the quarrel. According to Axios, they argued over the fate of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with each insisting on their own nominee to head the federal tax agency.
“There was no physical contact between them in the Oval Office, but the president saw it, and then they went out into the hallway and did it again,“ the witness added. “It was a scary scene - really intense,“ said another witness to the incident.
According to Axios, the argument was sparked by the fact that Musk wanted to see Gary Shapley head the IRS. Besant lobbied for his replacement, Michael Faulkner, and the Tesla founder tried to block him. The secretary of state approached Musk personally, and in their conversation, according to one of Axios' sources, "the F-word started flying around."
Bessent criticized Musk for not delivering on his promises, which included that DOGE would save the budget significant amounts of money. Musk responded by calling the Treasury Secretary a "Soros agent." As Axios points out, their argument got so serious that at one point, one of Trump's aides had to step in to break up the situation. "Scott won that round," one of the sources said, as the head of the tax agency became the Treasury Secretary's protégé. "But I wouldn't want to have a guy like Musk as an enemy," the Axios source added.
Musk has clashed with other members of the Trump administration before. In early April, he called Peter Navarro, the president's senior adviser on trade and manufacturing, a "real idiot."